How the FUCK did he get so successful? His comic is just Heathcliff with the same three gags recycled over and over.
How the FUCK did he get so successful? His comic is just Heathcliff with the same three gags recycled over and over
People really hate Mondays
it's funny that you think the color and animal chosen is somehow part of what a comic 'is'
the answer is that it was pretty snarky for its day, and at a time when sarcasm was kinda flooding in, it was a nice palatable way to dip your toes in.
the very first comic is just "hi i'm Jon I'll be your cartoonist" like... in 1978, that was funny.
dig bick
I never understood the garfield hatebase. It's fine for what it is, did they expect some deep plot line or what?
This. Apparently back then people unironically thought fucking GARFIELD had a little bit of edge to him because he was sarcastic and rude. I know because I had this one older teacher in school who had a weird obsession with Garfield and had merch of him, and posters of him all around the room with weird little mildly sarcastic phrases. She thought that shit was hilarious and maybe it was back in the 70s when she grew up, decades before me.
It kind of reminds me how some people who grew up in the 90s became obsessed with Sonic because he also had that slightly edgy "too cool" attitude. I think it is a similar phenomenon.
Are there really people who "hate" Garfield?
overall enjoyable comics for decades
comics collected in books and sold in bookstores and book fairs
successful cartoon and animated movies
pet force
merchandise out the ass
He was consistent and made smart business decisions with the character for several decades.
You don't see Snoopy declaring that people should be dragged out into the street and shot
same three gags
There was also Nermal.
God bless Jim Davis.
Garfel is based. Heathcels get the FUCK out
Moichendising
He just said what everyone's thinking, very relatable to the masses. You could probably copy his success pretty easily, just swap out "I hate mondays" with a more modern "Luigi did nothing wrong" punchline ad nauseum.
The fastest eater alive.
appeal to the masses, obivously
ngl tho he definitely put his all into it for a good 30 or so years; there were a ton of arcs focused on jon's dating life back then
Garfield and Friends has always been at least twice as funny as the comic strip at its best.
Generally just people who are mad it's not Calvin and Hobbes
A lot of that credit going to Mark Evanier, the other half of the famous Groo duo.
He knows what the people want.
Early Garfield is moderately funny and newspaper comic syndicates have really low bars unless it’s politics outside of a political cartoon.
Pretty sure that "dragged out the the street and shot" was a line that came from the comic first.
>black sheep
lol
It was easier back then because his entire audience was born surrounded by lead
Don't you even talk to me before I've had my coffee lol
Have a blessed Saturday!
I remember being obsessed with Garfield when I was in elementary school. Now that I'm older I don't really see the appeal anymore nor why adults would've like it that much. I guess he's relatable and the author did a good job with merchandising him. I consider him a bit of an anti-Bill Waterson with how much Waterson nerfed Calvin & Hobbes' potential cultural impact by giving a hard no to merch and animated adaptations.
this
The original tv shorts were crude yet soulful, the first tv series was funny and the background music it used had a lot of charm.
The sarcastic humor added some extra charm, especialy during a era where the cartoon was either a cashgrab licenced slop or a toy commercial full of dumb morals and everyone laughs endings.
Jim was at the right place and moment to take a chance and milk it for all what's worth.
Chileanfag here.
This series was a super mega hit on latinamerica, mostly because of it's brilliant Chilean dub: Davis himself commented that Sandro Larenas' voice was Garfield' s REAL voice.
People really love lasagna
Jon eventually got to win Liz because Jim decided to integrate the live action movie events with the cartoon strip.
Davis essentially gave up after the first 12 or so because nobody appreciated his "Garfield in Purgatory" arc.
Garfield has a lot of lackluster strips but the character is overall actually very funny, just because he's so bitchy. It's fucking great to watch Jon have an emotional breakdown while Garield just smugly watches and dunks on him.
U. S Acres had 3 characters who didnt made it to the cartoon.
- Cody, a white and black puppy who was playful, hyperactive and an endless source of trouble for everyone.
- Blue, a gentle and caring female cat who constantly kept Cody's antics at a tolerable level.
- And Jody, an orange female pony with freckles and a blonde mane.
As far I know, Cody and Blue were not used to avoid clashing with Garfield and Odie, while Jody was opted out to avoid legal issues because her design was a blatant G1 Applejack ripoff.
Jim Davis only worked on Garfield for the first four years or so, before delegating all the work to cheap labor for the last 40 plus years
Basically, he formed PAWS just to delegate all the work onto someone else.
I know a few artists who hate Garfield(namely the strip) for still having Jim Davis's name on the newspaper comic over the person who's actually drawing the comic.
They must hate a lot of comic strips then.
Arlene and Edna never showed up on the tv series.